This invention relates to a holder for fibrous products, and more particularly to a holder for non-woven fibrous pads primarily for abrasive cleaning purposes.
It is well established practice to provide cleaning machines to scrub, polish, clean, burnish or otherwise treat surfaces, in particular floors, such machines commonly incorporating rotatable fibrous, non-woven pads or discs of varying abrasive qualities dependent upon the task involved.
For reasons of simplicity and convenience, it is desirable that the pads can be easily attached to and removed from the machine.
With this in mind, it has been proposed, for example as described in UK specification no. 1214721, to provide a holder drivably attached to the machine and having a base member from a surface of which extend a plurality of short, narrow filaments the exposed ends of which are enlarged. A non-woven fibrous pad can be pushed onto the filaments, the enlarged heads of the filaments co-operating with the material of the pad to retain the pad in driving relationship with the holder. When it is desired to remove the pad from the holder, the pad is merely pulled away from the holder to disengage the heads of the filaments from the loops of the non-woven fibrous material of the pad.
Such holders do however suffer from a number of serious disadvantages. They commonly comprise a resin base in which are anchored and embedded one end of each of a plurality of individual filaments, the other end of each individual filament being heated and melted to form the required enlarged head thereon. Bearing in mind there will typically be several thousand filaments in even a relatively small pad, it will be appreciated that the manufacturing process, as well as the construction of the holder, is unduly complex.
The filaments comprise a mixture of relatively rigid nylon filaments interspersed amongst a majority of less rigid polypropylene filaments. The latter filaments are prone to undesirable bending when subjected to excessive pressure, the presence of the stronger nylon filaments serving to protect the softer polypropylene filaments against undue distortion. Thus it will be appreciated that a given holder comprises a plurality of components of different materials, adding to the complexity of the device.
The material of the filaments is such that, on repeated attachment and removal of the pad to and from the holder, the filaments are distorted and damaged and tend to break away from the resin base in which they are embedded. Thus the efficiency of the holder tends to deteriorate with use, while these current holders are also found to be less effective on used or compacted pads.
The required enlarged configuration of the free ends of the filaments is, as mentioned above, achieved by heating the filaments to melt the material thereof. However, such treatment does not result in a definitive configuration to the free ends of the filaments, and a suitably hooked or clawed shape to said ends cannot be guaranteed. Furthermore, the different materials of the relatively rigid and less rigid filaments, on the application of a given degree of heat, are melted to differing extents whereby some of the filaments are less distorted than others and provide less of a holding action on the fibrous pad than others.